Help Raise 100,000 Diapers for Moms and Babies in Need

By: Michelle Money

Low-income parents cannot take advantage of free or subsidized childcare if they cannot afford to leave diapers at childcare centers. Safety-net programs such as the Food Stamp Program and WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children) does not cover the cost of diapers. If parents cannot access daycare, then they are less able to attend work or school on a consistent basis. That's where the Diaper Bank comes in. The Diaper Bank wants to gather 100,000 diapers for moms and babies in need.

They drop off bins and pick them up, then re-wrap and distribute throughout the community

They distribute about 5,000/ month most are gone within the first week

Their History:

They were founded in 2012 after observing two years of diaper shortages in Salt Lake City.

They Heard about the diaper bank movement after investigating found diaper banks in 25 states but none in Utah

Non-profit, affiliated with the national diaper bank network, started facilitating diaper drives

Currently, there are 45 diaper banks in sates with two in Utah and one in Park City

In addition to Salt Lake City they distribute diapers to North Ogden and South Provo

Goals:

They distributed four times the number of diapers that they did in 2014.

2014: 15,000

2015: Goal was 33,000 actual was over 60,000

2016: Goal is at least 100,000 diapers.

Their vision is diaper banks and/or distribution to all counties in Utah

Now, you may thing that 100,000 diapers a year sounds like a lot, but they strongly believe it only begins to touch the surface of the problem. Most of their monthly partners distribute the diapers, and they ship them within a week, so a rough estimate is they could use at least four to five times the number of diapers they give them.

To raise awareness they focused their efforts on participating in National Diaper Need Awareness Week. From mid-September until mid-October the following events and activities took place: